Science losing its sheen in PU

BANGALORE: Worried over the declining number of students taking up Science at the pre-university level, the Department of PU Education will introduce National Core Curriculum (for Science and Mathematics) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus for I PU in 2012-13.“There are several psychological and societal stereotypes associated with Science education. For instance, Science education is    thought to be city-based, and rural students think  they can’t pursue science without tuition. We want to clear all such stereotypes,” said Commissioner for PU Education Rashmi V.According to the PU website statistics, out of the 1,16,845 students who took up Science in March 2011, 26,873 were from Bangalore, 6,978 from Mysore, 8,416 from Mangalore, 7,019 from Belgaum, 5,585 from Dharwad and 5,371 from Tumkur.Rashmi added that this year too, the department wanted to ensure quality education for students passing X standard examinations across the state.“We are focusing on both rural and urban students. In rural areas, we want to strengthen the government science PU colleges, and also facilitate a smooth transgression towards the use of Kannada textbooks introduced for the first time. In urban areas, we will undertake capacity-building and distribution of comprehensive question banks among other measures,” she said.She said the department wanted to address the rising cost of education by creating awareness and prescribing low-cost NCERT textbooks.